Still Human
by beba.santos.56
Summary: Hanna's infected but she's far from a monster. Her body somehow managed to mutate with the Cordyceps fungus which allowed her to keep human qualities, appearance and memories. Than one day she see's our survivor's on a food run one day. She gets curious about our fellow survivor's and follow's them. What will happen? Will she protect them? Watch them? Or let them die?
1. Chapter 1

_**Re-edit.**_

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_**Inspiration****: Time by Hans Zimmer**_

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_We can hear them. Right outside the damn doors. They keep screeching and pounding endlessly at the cherry wood door that looked like it would give way at any time. I've blocked the windows with wooden planks, and I could see them pound the windows with their bare fist. Cracking the glass, staining the glass with their infected blood. Blood was coming out from their eyes, noses, mouth and ears. Their veins visible, white foam coming down their chins with a mixture of red._

_"Hanna...I'm scared!" I gazed down at my twin sister, Lily, who I was holding dearly against my chest. I could see her honey-brown eyes full with fear. "I don't want to be them Hanna."_

_"I...I know Lily. Y..you aren't going to change...you're not going to change, I'm not going to let you change," I stated through tear-stained eyes, as I gazed at her shredded shoulder that was bitten yesterday. All it took was one god damn infected to come out of nowhere, just one, and me having my guard down, she got bitten. I could see the flesh and veins and her collarbone stuck out a little. The blood drip past my fingers, as I tried to stop the bleeding since last night but her wound refused to stop bleeding._

_"Let me bleed out. Please."_

_"Why? After everything we went through? After the hell we fought through to get away from the city, you want to die like this?" I questioned, as I held her right hand in my left hand. I saw her eyes slowly start to get a little red. Almost like she has pink-eye._

_"Its better than turning into a mindless monster!" Lily argued weakly. "We have no ammo left! Don't you realize that?!"_

_"I do realize that but please...just rest and don't talk Lily. Conserve your strength. Tomorrow they'll be gone, then will be on our merry way to the military check-point. We'll be safe and sound, " I whispered to her softly. She stared at me and shook her head a no._

_"There's no more we anymore. It's just you now. I won't see tomorrow, or the tomorrow after that, or the years to come You know that."_

_"You might not know! You could be immune to this! You might be immune to this infection!" Tears started to slowly drip out of the corner of Lily's eyes as she gazed at me. She squeezed my hand in pain, and I felt her body tensed and the veins in her eyes started to show up in a black color._

_"Mom, Dad...Nathan, Ana...Ivy...they changed within hours!" Lily hissed through clench teeth, as she arched in back and threw her head back. I could see sweat start to trickle down her neck and trail down her chest. "There's no hope...for me...anymore. Leave...escape while...you still have the...chance!" I closed my eyes and shook my head in protest._

_"I'm not leaving without you. Everything that I had, we had, is gone!"_

_"Don't...be...stupid!" stated Lily as she spat the words out harshly and hoarsely due to the pain, as if all the moisture in her mouth evaporated, making her throat raspy, "If you love me...leave me!"_

_"I love you too much to leave you!"_

_"Hanna! Leave!" she yelled as the pain within her body started to intensify. I watched as her body started to convulse in my arms, as is she was having a seizure. Her eyes rolled to back of her head and white foam with a mixture of blood started to pour out of her mouth._

_"Lily?! Lily?!" I screamed to hear, ignoring the pounding and the screeching and the growling that came at me in all directions. I shook her but to no avail, she didn't answer me. Then suddenly, her body stop moving in my arms as I heard her give a dying moan that escaped her lips. The only sound that came out from her mouth. I shook her slightly. Her head shook side to side gently, her hair swaying softly._

_"Wake up...please?" She didn't move. She was gone. She was gone forever. I pulled her to my chest and hugged her lifeless body. I could still feel her warmth radiating off her. "This is all my fault...its all my fault," I chanted over and over again. Each time I repeated it, the more I started to believe that it was true. That it was my very fault that she got bitten and died. It should have been me instead of her. It should have been me..it should have. I softly kissed her forehead and placed her lifeless body on the wooden floor. I gently took off her necklace that I gave her for her birthday and put it around my neck. Tears blurred my vision and I didn't have the strength to get up and find a way to escape from this house. I covered my eyes and cried._

_Suddenly, I heard something start to move. I looked between my fingers and saw Lily start to get up in front of me, her hair blocking her face from view. I drop my hands down and let them fall to my sides and watched with horror filled eyes as she got up. "Lily?" I called her name out, but she didn't respond. I watched as she twitched. _

_"L..ily?" She lifted her head and I saw blood trickle down her cheeks from where her eyes were and two golden eyes stare at me. Without warning she lunged at me, her mouth wide open._

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My own sister bite me right on my right shoulder, narrowly missing my neck by mere inches. I remember clearly fighting her off and running off to one of the rooms and I stayed in there, while listening to her punch and pound at the door while screeching and crying hysterically. The rest was blur afterwards. The pain was beyond any pain I've ever experienced. I remember it felt someone was stabbing each of my organs individually, then constricting my heart from pumping any blood. Then pushing on my lungs, preventing air to enter or exit my body, making my body starve from the lack of air. Then nothing.

Then I woke up a few days later, and to my surprise I wasn't a crazed, flesh-eating monster trying to infect non-infected humans, or I didn't bled to death. I had my hopes really high up when I actually assumed that I wasn't infected and that Lily wasn't dead, until I gazed at my right arm and saw that it was covered in some type of fungus looking things. My arm looked like it was covered with mushroom tops, with some green pus that looked like moss, and with my veins showing in red, green, and black color's. My arm pretty much looked like someone stuck my arm in a nasty pond that has been carelessly untended and polluted by human waste and toxins.

I then realized that I was truly infected is when I went downstairs, after managing to open the door, since I barely had the strength to even get up, let alone to even turn the damn door handle, is when I saw my sister, standing downstairs, hunched over, muttering and talking to herself while crying. I recognized her from behind until she turned around when she heard me as I descended down that stairs and screech at me. I stared at her, while a single tear escaped my left eye.

She wasn't recognizable from the front. Her shoulder that got bitten, the same type of fungus looking mushroom top was sprouting out of it, and it has ravaged the left side of her face. The fungus mushroom was coming out of her left eye and has deformed the left side of her lips and cheek completely, and it was leaking out a yellowish-green pus, my god she looked horrible. It looked like someone poured a gallon of hot oil on her skin, making it bubbly and the way it looked like now. I watched as she stared at me, then she made her way to me. I didn't move an inch. She sniffed me, then she sniffed my right arm up to where she bite me. She gazed at me, then screeched in my face. She than ran upstairs, to look for the source of the sound, ignoring me completely.

Right then and there, I realized I was one of them. I was infected. Infected by my own blood who looked nothing like me now. She no longer was my twin but a monster that was willing to attack those who weren't sick at any time, without thought. Not caring if she got killed. That's why I locked her in the room that I barricaded myself in before leaving and heading back to the city. I don't remember what year it is exactly, but I doubt I would give a damn anyway.

I gazed at the rising sun, that greeted me with her daily warmth that I cherished greatly each and everyday. She warmed my frozen body. Currently, I was using some office building as my _'home' _for now, but I have been staying here for a few years now, since I counted the winter's that have passed, which five have pass by already and I haven't changed in the slightest.

They still scare me. The infected I mean, besides the human's. I mean, the infected seem to double in number's by the day and I'm sick and tired of watching humans getting caught off guard and being rip apart by, what do they call us? Runners? Clickers? Stalkers? Bloater's? Limp by limp by my infected brother's and sister's, but I'm terrified that they'll turn on me and attack me. I haven't seen any of my infected brother's or sister's attack one another yet, but it could happen. But then again, if I help the non-infected, the humans, I'll be either shot on sight due to my right arm or be tormented. I've seen what they do to other's and it's much more worse than what my infected brother's and sister's do. Much worse.

My mind wandered off to my sister, Lily. She has to be dead by now, or at least, has mutated to a...more grotesque form. Like a clicker or something. If I go back to that house that lies on the outskirts of the city, I doubt I would even recognize her than I did last time. But she was right. I should have left when I had the chance and left her there for dead, allowed her to bleed to death like she wished. But no, I allowed her to become something that she didn't want to become because I didn't want to leave her and also because I didn't have any sort of escape route because infected surrounded the house. And not only that, she turned her own sister into an infected. She didn't want to do that...I know she didn't want me to become a monster.

I don't know if I'm even an infected. Or if I should even be called one. Actually, I still have no idea what I am. I know I'm an infected, but I'm far from being a monster. But I know I'm still human. Deep down inside me, I'm still a human, and I know it. I still have no idea how I managed to keep my memories in line, most infected, like my sister, have no remnants of their memories any more.

My gaze slowly drifted off to the buildings that have collapsed after the bombings they did years back, trying to control the infection, but it made things worse. I have to scavenge for food today. I just hope I don't run into non-infected again. I barely escaped with my life last time.

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_**Re-edit.**_


	2. Chapter 2: Mind over matter

_**Re-edit.**_

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_Guest1: Thank you for the support!_

_Guest2: No one actually ever pointed that out to me, repeating name's the way I did, I didn't realize that it can take away from the main plot. Thank you very much for correcting my mistake my love!_

_Now! Remember, there is going to be humor in this story, so a head ups if you feel or get confused!_

_Enjoy my loves!_

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I walked away from the stained, broken glass window and grab my discarded sweater that I always wore when I leave my safe house, in case I ran into humans, like bandits for starters. Those bastards are a pain in my rear. The last time I went on a food run was nearly a month ago. I was the using the rooftops to get around and I accidentally mistaken a certain area on one roof to be completely solid, since it was covered by moss, leaves, and vines. It wasn't my fault, I couldn't tell that it was actually a glass roof that so happen to be conveniently cracked in the center. Lets just say I fell through the glass roof like an angel that fell from the heaven's and landed right smack in the middle of group of bandits that happen to be looting the building at that very moment. Just my sweet luck right? I was leaping around for my life, till I managed to find a window that I was able to jump through, not before one of them managed to get a bullet in my right thigh.

My god, I was in pain for weeks trying to get the bullet fragments out. And that's how I got my nickname 'The Leaper' by humans after my little run in with the bandits. Now every human assumes that there is some new type of mutation.

I quickly slip on my sweater, being careful not to irritate my right arm that will not stop itching, and it was starting to smell due to the pus that started to seep around the mushroom tops again. Now I have to add medical supplies to my list on my food run...again. I zipped up my sweater and pulled my hood up to mask my face under the shadow it provided. It was safer to hide my arm and my face, due to the discoloration of my right eye, so I wouldn't get shot on sight, unlike last time when I didn't have my sweater on. I looked human...if I just bathed in the river. But I'm a bit to paranoid that I would get spotted and get murdered. The last time I looked at my reflection was the day I left the house and entered the city. I remember long, lush black hair and dark-brown eyes, with a slight discoloration in my right eye. Soft skin that was caked in blood after Lily bit the hell out of my shoulder.

Probably now, look like a swamp monster by now. Hair clump in knots, with weeds and leaves sticking out of my hair. Skin covered in dirt, grim, sweat, blood and tears. Clothes torn and worn out as the years gone by. And I most likely look like a crazed women just moving about and living in a collapse abandoned office building and staring out the window doing nothing better with her life but just stare at the damn sun all day like it was her version of television entertainment.

I walked down the hallways, the only sound that could be heard is the distance screeches and hysterical crying of a group of Runner's that were somewhere nearby, beside's my boots that made the soft tapping sounds on the stained tile floor. I dislike runner's. They are utterly annoying, especially in number's. Their even worse at night when I try to sleep. All they do is just freaking screech! And I thought Clicker's were bad! I prefer a Clicker's clicking then a Runner yelling random things. One time I even spotted a damn Runner yelling at a dumpster. Yeah...I got annoyed so I give the Runner an encouraging push into the dumpster and I left it in there. Screaming, yelling, kicking like a child demanding to be let out.

I'll admit, it was really cruel...but it was funny! But it can't over top the incident I had with on of my Clicker brother's. I was just innocently sitting on the edge of a twelve story office building. I had my legs dangling through an opening on the twelfth floor, where a big window should have been, and gazing at the beautiful view, when one of Clicker brother's came out of nowhere. He was just making that bizarre clicking sound that they all made, but I paid no mind to it. Years of living among them, I've gotten use to their sounds...well, somewhat got used too. Anyway, I have no idea what came over him, but he slap the back of my head. Mind you, I was really surprise for one, how did the hell did he have such good aim when he doesn't even have the top half of his head and two, why did he even slap the back of my head! Well, let's just say he took a wonderful swan dive from the twelfth floor to the welcoming street that was coming at him eighty miles per hour that flatten him like a pancake.

I peered down through the hole that was made due to years of water damage. I was currently on the third floor, and I needed to reach the first. Good thing the water that made this hole made an exact same hole on the second floor that went straight to the first floor. Quick way to get down if you ask me. I took one step forward and I felt myself fall down with gravity. I landed hard, but safely on the first floor. Loose dirt, rocks, and debris that was nearby slightly rattled at the after shock that vibrated through the dirty tiles. I slowly stood up, feeling no pain at all. That was one of the few advantages of being infected. I had super human strength...but not literally though. Its just that my body is now able to withstand things that would've killed a normal human being. Just now for instance. Falling through two floors would have broken both legs of a human, hell maybe even shattered their pelvis, left them paralyzed or even killed them.

I looked around the lobby, that once held so much life was now a waste land of personal items that were left behind by their owner's that fled in a hurry to escape before the infection reached here or when it got here. Chairs and tables were either kept in their usual place, turned over, or used to barricaded the entrance of the building to keep the infected out. But from the dead bodies that looked like mummies, I could tell their little barricaded didn't work. They got in. The elevator's were not working, one had its door slightly open, but I could see the little metal box that carried people up and down was tilted on its side. The wire, it must have snapped. Then there were those strange locks that the military put on door's to prevent them to be open if the infection got inside. They blocked off that certain area, leaving those who weren't infected inside to die.

I know they didn't have a choice. They were told to save as many people as they can. Which I find utterly stupid, because in the end, at the check-points, they scanned you with some scanner thing, and if you were determined positive for being infected, that was it for you. They put a bullet between your eyes. Kill one save a thousand is what they followed. They didn't care how young you were either, that was the really sad part about it.

I saw vines and grass starting to grow inside the building. It surprised me how much the human race created, and how much they have taken from Mother Nature, only to have Mother Nature reclaim back her land. Taking back everything that she had lost over the million's of years that had passed by and that have been taken by human's that were destroying everything that they touched. It just amazed me how Mother Nature started to take back everything.

I exited out the building, escaping the musty odor that swam inside, and walked down the street. Car's scattered the street like toys and bodies. They were long rusted away, but provided excellent homes for animal life and plants that ravaged everything in sight. The sun beamed down on me, and I enjoyed the radiating warmth that penetrated through my black sweater. The bad weather lately has kept the air a little chilly, since constant pouring rain has fallen for the past few weeks and it seems it won't let up. I could see dark clouds in the distance, so I know already there is going to be later storm tonight. I have to enjoy the sunshine while I can.

I knew that the buildings around me were already looted of all their valuable items, such as canned food and medical supplies, so I have no other choice but to go further away from my safe zone to unfamiliar territory. Which happens to be near the quarantine zone, its concrete walls separating the people within from the forgotten cities, towns, destruction and horror's that I run through everyday. I have to be mindful, the last time I ever got close to the walls of quarantine zone was when I brought back an injured soldier that I managed to rescue. To this day I don't know what took over me to make me save him. He had a sprained his ankle during a scuffle with one of sister runner's and he was nearly about to get torn apart and I just...sprung into action. I grabbed him while I just rammed my way through the group of runner's and jump out the window behind him. I had his face buried in my sweater so he couldn't see me and I leap from building to building till I got him back to his zone. I left him where a search light would spot him and I left in a hurry before he could see me.

I remember seeing sniper's patrolling the walls. But I doubt they would be patrolling at this time of day, since I haven't heard a gunshots in a while from that area. Guess threat levels is at all time low down there. Won't be surprise, since that area seems to send patrol troops into the my area. And where my area is, threat levels are very high. The last group of soldier's I saw was a few days ago when they entered an office building across from mines, and all I saw where flashes of white lights and screaming that echoed through the rainy night. It was horrible. The soldier I saved, he was on his own, so I didn't have much to be concern about. But I have no knowledge of what has become of him behind those foreign walls.

I kept walking, until I came upon the blockade of cars that separated me from the quarantine zone. I crouched down slightly, and using my _'powers'_, I call it my free-running skills, with out all the flips and such, and jump into the air, landing softly on the PVTA bus. I gazed at the new territory from where I was standing, then I gazed back behind me, debating if this was a smart idea.

"Fuck it. What do I got to lose?" I questioned to myself, as I hop of the bus, nervous but ready to search for supplies and food in this new territory.

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"Joel. Over here." I followed Tess, as she opened the entry way that was blocked off and hidden by a large board of wood. She entered first, then I. "Make sure you close the entry."

"Yeah. I got it," I answered, as I pulled back the wooden board, hiding the entry once more. Tess and me made our way down the lit hallway, only to see the a fog coming out of the door at the end of the hallway.

"Shit. Spores," I grumbled, as I put on my mask, as well as did Tess.

"They weren't here the last time we went through here. How the hell did they get inside here?" questioned Tess, as we entered the building. We crouched down, since the floor above us caved in years ago. I went first. As we rounded the corner, I could see the fungus starting to form. I followed the trail with my flashlight and saw dead infected bodies that the spores were growing out from.

"There's our culprit."

"Do they look fresh?"

"Yeah. Maybe a few weeks old, at least. Lets hurry up and get out here before we alert the house guests." Tess snorted at my comment. We made our way out and started looking for the way out. The fog like cloud the spores unleash is making it difficult to find the way out of this infected building. We walked around, searching for usable items. There were a lot of work stations. Many containing photo's of its dead owner's family taped up against the small walls that surrounded the little work space.

It made me sick to think if these people made it out alive or became a victim of this fungus. We were all victims to this fungus, ain't no doubt about that. Everybody suffered. I noticed a possible way, which was a tight spot to squeeze through, since two filing cabinets were sort of blocking the way. "Tess, this way," I sucked in my stomach, and eased my way through the little space. I pop out, and turned to help Tess, when a ragged voice startled me.

"Please! Help me!" I pushed Tess behind me and gazed down at ground where the voice came from. A young man was pinned to the ground by a filing cabinet, that was being weighed down by collapsed wooden beams and other debris. "My mask...its broken! Please! Don't let me change!" pleaded the young man.

"How you wanna play?" questioned Tess. I gazed at the young man and he stared at me with eyes full of despair. I could tell he didn't want to become a mindless creature. I took out my gun and pointed it at his head. He closed his eyes.

"Thank you."

I pulled the trigger.

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I got distracted while I was jumping on the rooftops when I spotted a Runner chasing a dog around. Not something you would usually see, but I found it quite amusing. I watched as the dog barked at my infected sibling, who in which screeched at it and lunged at, only to fail when it kissed dirt rather than meat when the dog ran from it again. Suddenly, I heard a loud bang on the other side of building I was on. I turned around and saw a flock of birds fly away, spooked by the loud sound. I walked to the other side, and saw nothing. Just bricked building, either standing up or in the progress of collapsing. Then there was a scream.

A scream that I immediately recognized.

It was the scream when a human is being torn apart by my infected brother's and sister's that have found them. "Not another..." I whispered softly as I tried to determine where the scream came from. I knew I couldn't do anything now. Once you're caught, you're caught. Either they fight for their life or die trying to get away. Suddenly, flash of white lights came from the brick building on my far left, through the windows. My attention was immediately fixed on that one building. I watched as a man and a woman jump out from the hole that was on the side and landed on the grassy ground, safe from harm. The man had short black hair. He was wearing some green shirt, and worn out jeans, he had a brown backpack that he was carrying on his back. The woman had short, long brown hair and was wearing what looked like a dark purple pinkish shirt and worn out jeans, also carrying a brown backpack.

I watched as they talked about something, but I was way to far to make out what they were saying. Then they started on their merry way again. I don't know why, but they gained my curiosity. Something that I rarely let happen. Remember the saying curiosity killed the cat? Well that's what going to happen to me, but the temptation of following them was to great. I just couldn't let go of an opportunity like this! But then again I didn't want to end up dead and become fertilizer for the plants and become a next meal for crow and such! Oh to hell with it! I jump off the roof, which was a good fifty feet up, to the ground below and started to follow them. I mean, what's life if you don't take a risk once in a while?

"I'm going to regret this dearly later, I know it."

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**Re-edit.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for the lovely reviews! I don't have the best memory of the parts of Joel and Tess, even though I beat the game three times, so please forgive me if I do get something wrong, but it is my story, so I am going to change things around.**

**All rights and claim's go to their rightful owner.**

**Enjoy!**

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I kept my distance, not wanting to catch their attention. Last thing I needed was to become a part of nature or become a great log thing that the spores can spread and grow upon. I ducked behind rubble, corner's, bushes and any large objects, such as cars that could hide me. Even though I was far, I felt anxious. I mean, what happens if they turn around? I'm not the most hide-able thing around here. Who wouldn't get suspicious about the mysterious shadow following them trying to act like a wooden plank? I'm not the most silent person when it comes to tailing people. The last time I attempted this daring stunt was like two, maybe three years back, and it ended so horribly. Let's just say if it weren't for my infected siblings, my brain would have painted the dirty ground a lovely shade of rosy, dark red. I sighed deeply to myself. I really hated that I always broke my promises of staying away from stupid, idiotic, and daring ideas that involved a very high risk of death and yet I still did the damn thing! I mean, I felt a tad bit guilty of not saving the survivor's but then again they did had a shotgun pointed right at my forehead after I accidentally slipped on a slippery floor, falling out of my hiding spot and blowing my cover. They didn't pull the trigger because when I fell, I banged my head on the damn floor which set pain through my body. And, out of my human instinct, I grasp my head to stop the throbbing pain, somehow pushing my hoodie back revealing my non-mutated face, which stop them. And somehow, we made a lot of noise that my infected siblings heard and they bashed through the door and tackled the human's.

God. It still chills me to the very bone when I think about that day. Their screaming, the sound of their skin being rip apart, the screaming and chewing of my infected siblings as they feasted on them still echoed in my ears as if it happen yesterday. I just remember fleeing out of there as fast as I could, trying escape the scene. It was too painful to watch. To hear. To hear them, the survivors screaming for help, because I was them once and I was in that same position. I can terrifyingly remember watching a group of runner's rip my parent's apart in the hospital. Then it was my friends as we tried to escape our quarantine zone after it got overrun. All it took was one damn idiot sneaking in a recently infected person for damn money. And it resulted with me losing my twin, my family, my friends, and somewhat my humanity. I lost everything in one day because of that one idiot.

I pressed myself against the side of a brick building and peered around the corner as I watched the human's, my human's to be more exact, approach a blue door. I could smell the scent of various humans that seem strangely close by. Is there a quarantine zone around here? I watched as the woman opened the door and entered the dark building, then the man followed, gazing around to see if they weren't being followed, but since he couldn't see me he turned around closing the door. I was more surprise that I didn't smell any of my brother's or sister's. Usually they would be in nearby buildings hiding in the dark with the spores that flourished like wildfire inside. Might be because those group of soldier's I always spot from my safe house office building cleaned them out. I really don't understand why they take their searches all the way where I am currently staying. The office building is like in the mid-center, but slightly on the outskirts of the city. I think people would have a lot more common sense to stay away from the city. I mean, c'mon. It's common zombie 101 knowledge. Never enter the forsaken and verified death cities! There's more infected in the inner cities than the outskirts or edge of the damn cities! But human's are too naïve for their own good freaking sake to use their common sense!

I step away from the wall and quietly and quickly sprinted my way to the same blue door that my human's went through. I feel like I branded them or something because I just realized I was calling them MY human's. I slowly grasp the rusty door knob, that looked like it was going to break off at any moment, and very gently turned it. I finally heard the click that told me that the door was now able to be open. I felt my heart rate slightly accelerate at the nervousness I was feeling. I have to admit, my chest was starting to lightly ache. My heart has been beating very slowly after I turned. It's been beating like eight beats per minute or something. My heart has been pretty much in a dormant state, beating slowly as if I was in a coma or if I was bleeding out slowly, but it was managing to keep me alive. I pressed my other hand against the metal blue door, trying to keep the door movement as quiet and unnoticeable as possible. I managed to open a slight crack, but stopped when I heard their voices. But I think they didn't hear me for their voices didn't change tone. I slowly moved myself to the other side of the door and sucked in my stomach as I squeezed through the crack as silently as I could. Each little noise made me more paranoid by the second. I closed the door, being very careful to not make the loud clicking sound doors made when they shut. Once closed, I crouched down all the way to the floor, blending in with the darkness and cautiously crawled my way to them, stopping and pushing myself closer to the floor.

"Grab the ammo on the table Joel. Might come to good use," stated the woman as I watched her point at the only table in the entire room. The, who might be this Joel guy, man grab a tiny object off the table, grabbing my attention. I watched as he opened it and begun to mutter what sounded like number's, while the woman knocked on another metal door that was in the room that I didn't see. I adverted my attention from the man to the door as it started to open. I watched as a young child pop his head into the room and gazed at the woman with confusion. I tilted my head in confusion also. I haven't seen a human child since I was like fifteen, after I changed and everything happen. Considering the fact that it was dangerous for a woman to get pregnant when I was still human in the year 2013 I believe, before the outbreak happen. Being pregnant made a woman incapable of running away or to fight, which resulted her instant death. And because medical supplies were not in stock, so child-birth would be very painful.

I watched as the woman take out what looked like a green slip of paper from her back pocket and held it in front of the human child. I watched as the human child eyes widen in happiness and he made a grab for it, only for the woman to rise it slightly away from his reach. What was she doing? "This ration card is yours if you check our path is cleared and of Robert's men. Understand?" questioned the woman. The human child nodded his head and the woman give him the green paper. What was a ration card? I remember a lot but my memory is somewhat fried so I don't remember a lot of words. But I never heard of a ration card. I've remember food stamps, but not ration cards. The human child closed the door and I could see him run by a window that was in this building.

"Tess. Are you sure this is our Robert?" questioned Joel. I gazed between him and the woman, Tess, who was currently leaning against the metal door, with her arms cross. Robert? Who's this Robert guy that got them so uptight?

"Yes Joel, this is our stupid Robert," answered Tess, "The very same bastard that owes us some gun's." Did she just say gun's? I slightly started to shake at the memories of my near death encounter's with gun's.

"You sure you wanna go through with this? You know Robert's little henchmen will be guarding the shipyard."

"I know Joel. We've been there plenty times before, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind us putting some bullets in his guards heads," replied Tess with a slight smirk. That smirk scared me more than my near death experience at the end of a shotgun! What have I gotten myself into?!

"And what happen if shit goes south?" questioned Joel. Tess shrugged her shoulder's.

"Kill everyone. Kill or be killed," she answered simply. How can both of them speak so calmly about killing people? It sounds like killing people is a job they do on regular basis. Suddenly, the human child came back and banged on the window, before running to wherever he was needed. Tess opened the door. "Let's go before we lose Robert again." Joel said nothing but followed. The metal door closed behind him, but it didn't close all the way. The door was slightly ajar. I could see my human's go around a fence, escaping my eyesight. I slowly got up from the ground and tip-toed my way to the metal door. I tugged it open even more and peered my head around the door. I could see human's everywhere. Waiting, many doing nothing. I was about to turn around when the thought of being found out and the thought of death screamed at me in every direction, but I didn't follow these nut jobs for a half hour for nothing. Fighting against my best judgement I took my first step into a quarantine zone.

Zones that I tried to stay as far away due to the horrible memories.

"Okay...into the city...what have I gotten myself into?" I questioned to myself.

* * *

_**Please leave any personal ideas, advice or thoughts and don't forget to review!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_"My idiocy will be the death of me."_

_-Hanna_

_"If I died. At least I passed knowing Hanna's safe. I know things she doesn't. I wish we could reach the hospital faster. Maybe we can stop this before it gets us. Forgive us Hanna. "_

_-Lily (Deceased.)_

* * *

When I heard the metal door behind me shut, I felt my blood run ice cold in fear and doubt. Everything inside me was screaming and shouting to turn back. It isn't to late to back down now. My chest started to hurt more than normally. My heart was pushing itself to the max due to my panicking. "_Push forward Hanna. You didn't break your oath of never going back to a quarantine zone for nothing,"_ I said to myself in my head. I wrap my arms around my body, clutching the fabric of sweater that felt like my only life line between me being discovered and killed or me leaving alive. I looked up and saw them. The humans. The non-infected. It's was bizarre thinking how I was once them and now I'm a freakish mutation of this infection. Most of them were at these poorly made stands that looked like they were made and built with anything that was them. Barrels, rotten wooden pieces, water proof covers. Anything that was able to keep something up. They were to preoccupied to even look at me yet it felt like I was being stared down. I slowly walked towards them, following the sent of the woman and man. They seem to have gotten some distance between me. I smelled something being cooked. Smelled burnt. I got on my tippy toes to look over the crowd and saw what the man behind the stand was making.

Rats. This man was cooking rats. He didn't even bother skinning them. He simply drove a metal rod through the sides of the rodents stomachs and placed them over a grill and let the fire do its work. Aren't rats the reason this fungus raged like fire? Started this apocalypse? If I was them I won't dare eat a single one but its all about survival. They do what they do to live the next day. With people dying left and right due to the lack of nourishment and food available, I say eat anything you can that won't kill you but rats wouldn't be my first choice. I lifted my eyes to the apartment buildings and saw how miserable they look. They were dirty. Rusted. Possibly stained with blood of those who were killed long ago and now especially at the front gate where those check points were stationed at. Many came to seek shelter, only about half made it passed the points. Memories flashed in my head when I remembered when my family and friends were going through one of those. They held scanners to the back of necks or eyes that identified us as positive or negative. We watched as families were separated if someone was positive. They would take them off to somewhere and all you would hear nearby guns going off while at the same time you watched soldiers bringing back body bags on stretchers or worst cases, a body on a stretcher with a simple blanket covering the person you could've saw alive minutes prior and see the red spots on the blanket or arms dangling. Worst thing about it, they dump the bodies altogether in piles or in dumpsters as if those people weren't anything. As if they were no better than those who did change and became unspeakable horror. Yes they might have been carrying but they were still them. They were human! Every single person that turned to the military for help only to have a bullet blown through their head? After the horrors they seen? The nightmare they had to fight through to get to them they deserved that as their reward of survival? I understand they did it to keep the others who were identified negative safe. Like I said before they followed the saying, 'Kill one, save a thousand.' Yet they killed a thousand to save a thousand. I wasn't surprise when riots started erupting and more people died.

Paranoia and anger were everyone's best friend.

I closed my eyes and took a whiff in the air. I almost felt like gagging as I covered my nose with my hands. The air smelt of human waste and human body oder. The body oder I could tolerate, but human waste not so much. I don't know what was worse. The decaying bodies of rip apart humans and infected or the remains of human waste. I think I'll stick to decaying bodies since I been exposed to them more than humans. I heard the distance sound of thunder and I gazed to the sky. I could see the dark clouds advancing slowly. I needed to hurry before I get caught up in it. I moved my hands and sniffed again.

There it was again. Their scent. I turned following the sent and felt my body froze. Their scent went straight through a makeshift market that had a dozen or so owners sitting there waiting. Staring. Glaring. It looked like they hated everything about like by the looks of it. I mean, who wouldn't? Everyone has a bone to pick with Mother Nature. There has to be another way around. I can't go head on after them through that. Is it to late turn back? No, I didn't run and follow them halfway across the city and from my safe zone for nothing. Going back through that door will no doubt make me look suspicious but I also didn't want to face death in the eye. I faced him once and that was when Lily bit me. It felt like he was there to claim my soul that day yet he found this sick satisfaction watching me cry, scream, wither in pain and bleed in agony as the fungus ravaged and attacked my body from the inside and out while hearing my twin yelling and screaming behind the door to get to me to finish me off. He watched me suffered before leaving as if he made the decision it wasn't my time to go. That's why I'm a mutated monster everyone fears.

The infamous Leaper that everyone calls me yet never seen but only by a few.

_"Hanna."_ My eyes widen at the sound of my name. Who-did someone recognized me? No. That can't be possible. Everyone dear to me got killed when our safe zone got overrun. Mom and dad got were killed at the clinic. Nathan, Ana and Ivy got tackled and torn apart by runners when we were running to escape. Lily died in my arms and changed. Than there's me. I don't know if I'm dead or alive. _"Always the clueless one."_ L-Lily? I looked to my right where there was an alley and standing there was Lily. She stood there, wearing her favorite one shoulder hot pink shirt with her blue leggings and brown knee length boots. Her hair done in a high ponytail with a few strands of hair hanging loosely in front of her eyes. That's what she was wearing the day the infected got in our safe zone. How many years ago was that? Five? We were fifteen when we were bitten. She smiled at me. The innocence we both once had was on her face again. _"My sister alright."_ I suddenly felt something tug on my sweater and I jolted. I looked down and saw that kid that opened the door for my humans looking at me. I looked back up to the alley and she was gone as if she was never there. What was that?

"Miss? You alright?" asked the young boy. I nodded a yes as I tore my eyes from the alley to look down at him. He didn't seem to notice the abnormalities. That's a good sign. "You're crying miss." I touched my face and I felt the wetness. I didn't realize it. That had to my imagination but something like that never happened before. I've had dreams similar to that but nothing like that. I crouched down to the young boys level, wiping my face clean while keeping a calm face. "Why were you crying?"

"H..." I swallowed, feeling nervous. It's been awhile since I talked full sentences. I've talked to myself to not forget but I might be pretty rusty, "Have you ever...missed someone so much...that it hurts?" I asked him as I detached his hand from my sweater carefully. I'm actually not bad at talking.

"Yes. I miss my father. He was sent out with his team to search the area further from our safe zone," his gazed drop to the ground, "Him and his team never came back." I felt this pang of guilt in my chest. The only team he could be talking about is the one that entered that building followed with the screaming and gunfire a few days back. I'm sure there are no survivors seeing how the more inner you go into the city the more runners, clickers and those god awful annoying stalkers there seem to be roaming inside the long forgotten, rotting away buildings. It's suicide walking inside a building blindly even more suicidal knowing that those search teams jobs were to find infected and than send another team to clean out the area to find supplies.

"He'll come back. Don't worry," I lied. What was the point of telling the truth? Truth seemed dead. Reality was a nightmare. If lying was going to bring a shimmer of hope into someones eyes so be it. Most would rather be lied to than be told the truth. It'll save so much more than pain. It'll give a false hope when they lost the real hope. After all, when we turned for hope, she left us to die.

"You really think that?" I gave a fake smile in return.

"Yes I do." That smile he gave radiated like the sun. "I saw you come out that door right after that lady and guy. Are you a friend of theirs?" Here come the lies. I'm going to be dragged to hell for certain after this.

"Yes. I'm a friend of their's. I met them along way to here. They allowed me to tag along as long as I kept my distance and I did. I was making sure we had our tracks covered but as you can see, it took more time than I thought now I got lost from them," I rub the back of head sheepishly, "Do you think you can take me back to them? They were looking for a guy named Robert. Do you know where this guy is? Where this Robert guy is they're bound to be there."

"My mom said I shouldn't go to where he is. He's a bad man." This peaked my interest.

"Bad man? How so?"

"He does bad stuff."

"Oh really? Like really bad stuff?" He nodded a yes. "Can you point me where to go?" He nodded a yes again. Without looking up he pointed back to his right. I followed his arm and it was pointing at the alley where I saw the apparition of Lily.

"Take that alley. Than two rights and make a dash across a street to the alley parallel to the one you're in. Than climb up a ladder and use the rooftops and make your way to the ship yard. Watch out for the guards though." He warned, "They have orders to shoot and kill on sight." I was baffled by how much this kid knew. It was as if he memorized the entire map of this zone.

"This the quickest way?"

"No, but it's an alternative route. It's fast depending how quickly you can run across roof tops," well that isn't too hard considering I'm the Leaper, "The quickest way to reach it is that way," he pointed to the makeshift market, "But they won't let anyone by if they don't know you unless your with someone they know." Really? No one really owns any part of a zone unless they're the kind of person that can line the pockets of some greedy and easily convincing individuals. Whoever my humans are dealing with has made quite a infamous name for himself that much I'll say.

"Kid, do you know the name of that man and woman?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. The guy, his name is Joel and the lady, her name is Tess." Joel and Tess huh? Not bad. Would've thought something like Charlie and Maria but Joel and Tess sound like fine names.

"Thanks for helping," I stated as I ruffled up his hair playfully and he laughed as he smacked my hands away. "Stay a good kid," I smirked at him before jogging my way to the alley. I expected to see my sister there but there was nothing.

What did my mind make up?

* * *

I pulled myself up onto the roof, not needing much effort. It would've been more easier if I just jump onto the buildings but that would've got me spotted sooner so I did take the ladder...kind a. I mean I climb half way than jump and grab the ledge so therefore I did use the ladder. I'm use to jumping around not using the normal methods of climbing. My human instincts aren't really there like they were five years back. I used my hands and blocked out the sunlight. I squinted and saw a ship. A ship means the ship yard or docks. All I know is that they are heading that way to deal with this unknown guy. Thinking about when Tess, my female human, mentioned 'Robert's men' means that this guy is a bit more in control of this place. All I know about him is he owes them guns. I hate guns. I know they are meant to kill my infected brothers and sisters but sheesh. Some people get a bit to trigger happy and go on a bloody killing spree killing non-infected and infected alike. This twisted, devastating time has pushed some over the edge to oblivion, to insanity. To kill without thought was more scarier than anything else. Most would say that my infected siblings are mindless beings and I won't deny, most are but they kill to feed. If they don't eat they starve to death like I've seen. They become skin and bone and I pity them when I find them on the ground to weak to stand. But humans who had lost their minds have nothing else but utter chaos and bloodlust. Worse case scenario I have ever saw was a man devouring other man on purpose. He hanged his body up like a pig in a slaughterhouse ready to be cut into pieces and simply hacked the dead man to bits.

'Survival of the fittest.' Where does it say in the book of sayings that survival of the fittest meant resorting to cannibalism?

"What the?" I let out a gasp as I heard a male voice behind me. I turned around and saw a young male standing there, staring at me confused. He was carrying a heavy gun in his hands while wearing protective armor. I knew if I ran he would shout, shoot and probably call for back up blowing my cover or I can simply overpower him since I'm triple his human strength. I'm not into the whole killing thing unless it's needed, and this kid looked like he was in his early twenties. It looked like he didn't even know how to hold the damn gun for sweet sakes! I might as well as disarm him and go on my merry way. But he could be a marksmen for all I freaking know. Is it worth the risk? "How did you get up here!" He was yelling. Not good. I kept quiet as I stared him down. "Answer!" He lifted his gun towards me. It's now or never Hanna! I sprinted forward at him at inhuman speed. His eyes widen in surprise as I jump into the air, reaching at least a good fifteen to twenty feet in the air covering the space between us before I slammed down on him. He laid under me while I sat above him. He was in too much shock to fight back as I snatched the gun from him and tossed it far from us. I leaned forward, our faces inches apart. I saw the fear in his eyes as if asking what am I. He looked familiar a little, but from where? I put a single finger to my lips, telling him to be quiet. His eyes seemed paralyzed on something. He must've noticed my eyes. The discoloration in my right eye. I rolled my eyes, I knew I should've been more careful.

"Stay...down okay? I'm not here...for you. I'm looking for someone else...two actually. I'm going to get off you alright, but you need to stay down until I'm gone. Understand? Or I have to disable you and I'm much more stronger and I don't want to do that. Okay?" He nervously shook his head a yes, his frighten amazed eyes never breaking contact with mines. I slowly got off him, in a pounce stance incase he tried to do anything funny. Seeing that he barely moved a muscle I ran to the edge of the roof in the direction of the ship yard and leap across and landed on another building and ran as fast as I can towards my destination. I felt weightless as I glided effortlessly in the air and jump from building to building with grace. It surprised me how empty the streets were in this part of this zone. Where was everybody? Silence never meant anything good. Never did and never will. My went back to that young male. Where have I seen him before? I never made any contact with humans besides that one time...with a male soldier a month or two back ago...no that can't be him. I didn't even get a good look at the soldier I saved nor did he get a good look at me. But he probably might have remembered the entire feeling of jumping and gliding through air or he simply knew me through rumors about me, 'The Leaper.' Than I again, I did jump nearly twenty feet into the air. I really need to stop putting myself in these situations I swear. Suddenly this smell hit me. It was faint but was getting stronger as I neared the ship yard. A smell I'm all too familiar with.

_Blood_.

And there was a lot of it. I could pick up various scents but I smelled Joel's and Tess's blood in the mix. There's was faint but the thought of them injured wasn't a pretty thought. I needed to get there and now.


End file.
